tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post1567501639389322866..comments2024-03-19T07:47:07.947-04:00Comments on Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Christine's lover Phantom of the Opera —TUES, Oct. 6 2009 — All-Star Danny who played for 1980s Celtics / Romance/suspense novelist TamiRex Parkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-1769372932763302542009-11-10T16:17:37.715-05:002009-11-10T16:17:37.715-05:00@darkman, I see your point, but the clue wasn'...@darkman, I see your point, but the clue wasn't "Lover of Christine", which one could argue the Phantom was (albeit a twisted, obsessive love), but "Christine's lover". The possessive makes him her lover in a way the she owns as valid. She respected him as her tutor, but when his twisted love became apparent to her, she was appalled. In the musical she clearly has feelings of pity for him, but she in no way accepts his obsessive love for her.Singernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76505123783757729332009-11-10T14:36:23.555-05:002009-11-10T14:36:23.555-05:00Singer (and others): Love is not necessarily requi...Singer (and others): Love is not necessarily requited. I can love you (be your lover) and you may never know it, though I stalk you relentlessly. Or, you may know of my obsession. Either way, though you would never think of me as your lover, the reverse could easilly be the case.slypetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05537129206516720012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-32258652900559655172009-11-10T14:18:27.572-05:002009-11-10T14:18:27.572-05:00From syndication land:
I did like this puzzle, an...From syndication land:<br /><br />I did like this puzzle, and agree it would have maybe been more fun without the explanation in 18A. I did start in the NE and so got to 2D first. I had a big ?? there, but crosses began to make it clear - I held off entering RASPBERRY until I read the 18A clue, which confirmed the suspicion. The suspicion would have lasted longer without the explanation,so Wednesday or Thursday would have been appropriate.<br /><br />The RHE argument has much validity on both sides. I would have entered RBI if I hadn't already learned from 46D that the middle was HITS. Didn't hate it as much as rp, but didn't like it particularly either.<br /><br />AINGE was a gimme to me as an Oregonian since he was from Eugene, OR and played for the Trailblazers. His return to Oregon was a heralded event, even though he was always a second tier player. He had a great shooting eye, but wasn't much help on defense.<br /><br />I really had trouble with Hoag/Huag and Thro/Thru. I guessed at the "o" because Huag doesn't sound like a valid name, but THRO is a really unusual spelling for that word. I have to admit having seen it before, and that helped with using the "o", but it certainly wasn't an easy choice.<br /><br />I totally agree with rp that ERIS is classic crosswordese. I got the NW relatively easily, but was really not happy with the clue for 1A. The answer can only be Raoul. Never new the Phantom's name, having only seen the musical, but I would never call him her lover under any circumstances unless a stalker / rapist is a lover.Singernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-61473449752964067502009-11-10T13:16:56.559-05:002009-11-10T13:16:56.559-05:00Erik, the phantom, was NEVER Christine's lover...Erik, the phantom, was NEVER Christine's lover. Her lover was Raoul, the viscount. The phantom was her stalker (as someone else said). <br /><br />In all versions of the story, Erik, or the phantom, was a psychopathic killer who acts as a Svengali, training and controlling Christine, and finally kidnapping her. In the original 1910 book, Christine is forced to "marry" the phantom. More accurate would be to call it rape. In the Broadway musical she is set free before that happens. In the recent movie version of the musical, Erik is portrayed as younger and buff, with a sexual tension between him and Christine. But her choice was always Raoul. She may have been loved by the phantom, but he was never her lover. <br /><br />How did an obvious error like this get past the editors?gafromcahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12945300992253744379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-27209150983686746532009-11-10T12:35:39.133-05:002009-11-10T12:35:39.133-05:00What a great Tuesday puzzle! Really enjoyed it.
In...What a great Tuesday puzzle! Really enjoyed it.<br />Interestingly, according to Mr. Google, Danny Ainge's nephew, Erik Ainge, was the starting quarterback on the football team at the University of Tennessee and was selected by the New York Jets in the 5th round of the 2008 NFL Draft. So future puzzles could feature a 1A,12D daily double. <br />Also, since Rabbie Burns spelled his poem's title as "Comin' Thro' The Rye" roughly two hundred years before COBOL (I think) popularized THRU, HOAG had to be correct (however, as an ex-COBOL programmer, I too spelled it HUAG!). Yecch!Waxy in Montrealhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04395751487137805245noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-59641542932381857872009-10-07T08:47:44.555-04:002009-10-07T08:47:44.555-04:00I'm thinking of the 1959 Celtics: Russell, Cou...I'm thinking of the 1959 Celtics: Russell, Cousy, Sharman, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones. Cleaned the (then Mpls) Lakers' clock in the finals 4-0. 3 black, 2 white in the starting lineup.<br /><br />Getting Larry Bird was a coup for Auerbach. Per Wikipedia:<br /><br />"The Boston Celtics selected the 6'9", 220-pound Bird 6th overall in the 1978 NBA Draft, even though they were uncertain whether he would enter the NBA or remain at Indiana State to play his senior season. Bird ultimately decided to play his final college season, but the Celtics retained their exclusive right to sign him until the 1979 NBA Draft, because of the NBA's "junior eligible" rule that existed at that time (allowing a collegiate player to be drafted when the player's original "entering" class was graduating and giving them one calendar year to sign them, even if they went back to college). Shortly before that deadline, Bird agreed to sign with the Celtics for a US $650,000 a year contract, making him at the time the highest-paid rookie in the history of the NBA. Shortly afterwards, the NBA draft eligibility rules were changed to prevent teams from drafting players before they were ready to sign. The rule is called the Bird Collegiate Rule."<br /><br />ANYBODY would have drafted Bird if they could, regardless of skin color. Green or purple would have been fine for a player arguably the best of all tome.retired_chemisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13181126754941899228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-17090249411397118982009-10-07T08:10:53.445-04:002009-10-07T08:10:53.445-04:00@andrea: No can of worms opened, no apology needed...@andrea: No can of worms opened, no apology needed. :-)Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02681342234536407419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-32137921222067656582009-10-07T01:50:17.457-04:002009-10-07T01:50:17.457-04:00@stan
I really didn't mean to open a can of wo...@stan<br />I really didn't mean to open a can of worms about Boston's racism...<br />(Even tho I'm not alone about it) just my memories of the name Danny Ainge... Apologies.<br /><br />@anon9:43pm<br />Can't respond personally if you're anonymous...but Dinner Impossible has to be listed another another title or they'll take it down! <br />If the links don't work, you go to YouTube.com and search: geeewhiz (the threee eee's are the way it was set up, not by me...thanks to Nancy Shack's generosity!)<br />I'm mostly in the first three parts :) Hopeless!<br /><br />Part 1<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z59vdEL_MdY&feature=related<br />Part2<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sILuLLM1YUI&feature=related<br />Part3<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zztqf7w-wMA&feature=related<br />Part4<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaGGQDJVJ-M&feature=related<br />Part 5<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Xefqh-7to&feature=related<br /><br />Hey! When searching for a middle name for this post, I just noticed ORC and ORCA in the same puzzle.<br />Has this been discussed?andrea orc/a michaelsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36078151581948252022009-10-07T01:02:24.325-04:002009-10-07T01:02:24.325-04:00Late comments:
Danny Ainge was the (co-)subject o...Late comments:<br /><br />Danny Ainge was the (co-)subject of a memorable newspaper headline. During a playoff series with the Atlanta Hawks, he got into a physical tussle with a player named Tree Rollins, and Rollins bit through his finger. Next day, the Boston Herald ran the headline: TREE BITES MAN.<br /><br />If I'm ever on a desert island with only a music video channel, I'd want "Raspberry Beret" in heavy rotation.<br /><br />@Andrea: Your implication that the Celtics are/were a "white" team (added to the racism you no-doubt really sensed in Boston) deserves a better response than I can easily come up with. But I will say that the Celtics organization has been pretty good about naming black coaches (positions of leadership). Is a mixed-race team with a black coach whiter than an all-black team with a white coach?Stanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02681342234536407419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-86505630282734176242009-10-07T00:21:40.308-04:002009-10-07T00:21:40.308-04:00One of our cousins, a high school kid, wrote on fa...One of our cousins, a high school kid, wrote on facebook.com today about her basketball team: "We should have beated NATICK." Really!<br /><br />Loved the puzzle.<br /><br />Commenting late, not much to say, but I saw that Rex had 99 & I wanted him to have 100.Denisenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-36232221068025753342009-10-07T00:20:42.997-04:002009-10-07T00:20:42.997-04:00dk: Spoor means all sign--scats, prints, gnawings,...dk: Spoor means all sign--scats, prints, gnawings, etc. See "Tracking and the Art of Seeing" (Paul Rezendes).<br /><br />Which reminds me of the time in Vermont, at the base of Mt. Monadnock, I found an immense paw-print with no claws in clay. Could only have been a mountain lion. Checked this with a tracker/hunting guide, who said there had been unconfirmed sightings.slypetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05537129206516720012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-52336415827041314952009-10-06T23:23:12.791-04:002009-10-06T23:23:12.791-04:00@sanfranman, it's getting to be such a terrifi...@sanfranman, it's getting to be such a terrific sample size and a wonderful database! It seems to me that most of the time, Rex's ratings are congruent with what your numbers reveal, even when people who are commenting disagree...Of course the commenters are a mix of on line solvers and other types and my sense is that sometimes the solving medium can make some difference (e.g. in the case of a rebus). <br /><br />Rex, very interesting to learn about what the software does and does not do...foodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052189131129098616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-26608420264430432842009-10-06T22:33:35.313-04:002009-10-06T22:33:35.313-04:00Happy to hear, I like to imagine you and your coll...Happy to hear, I like to imagine you and your colleagues really working and polishing these puzzles!machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-74029605645864994622009-10-06T22:30:43.262-04:002009-10-06T22:30:43.262-04:00No, mac, it's way way more complicated than th...No, mac, it's way way more complicated than that. Sadly, the grid doesn't "show up." Building it (esp. if you've got a dense theme) is hard as hell, software or no. Software can make fill suggestions, and tell you (in theory) if your grid is even fillable. But you can't just press a button and get a good grid/puzzle, not by a Long shot.Rex Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-49536843022757401932009-10-06T22:24:45.466-04:002009-10-06T22:24:45.466-04:00That's interesting. I've been wondering ho...That's interesting. I've been wondering how the constructors use the softwhere: do they put it 4 - 5theme answers, the grid shows up, and then they put in the fill with the help of the program?machttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06794371617847975218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-53373086910133352992009-10-06T22:19:03.331-04:002009-10-06T22:19:03.331-04:00I promise you there's nothing "clever&quo...I promise you there's nothing "clever" about RHE. It's been in puzzles a bunch, and no one willingly puts it in his/her puzzle thinking "this will be clever." More likely than not, constructing software suggested it as possible fill. That's how I learned it in the first place. "Would you like to use RHE here?" No, I would not, bec. I don't even know what that is. Figured it was some Asian name. Sometimes (often) you have to fight the urge to let software do the filling for you. Good for getting out of scrapes, though.<br /><br />rpRex Parkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16145707733877505087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-20962096286792724202009-10-06T22:14:18.145-04:002009-10-06T22:14:18.145-04:00I'm sure that I am as big a baseball fan as an...I'm sure that I am as big a baseball fan as anyone else on this blog (great Twin-Tiger game today, by the way). Yet when I got RHE, I was puzzled for a while before I figured it out. But my reaction was not "bad clue/answer" but instead "clever clue'answer, should have understood that more quickly..."michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-89130469443792428992009-10-06T22:06:40.015-04:002009-10-06T22:06:40.015-04:00This week's relative difficulty ratings. See m...This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=35115061&postID=3588389571383499624&isPopup=true" rel="nofollow">7/30/2009 post</a> for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.<br /><br />All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)<br /><br />Mon 7:13, 6:59, 1.03, 63%, Medium-Challenging<br />Tue 10:40, 8:34, 1.25, 95%, Challenging<br /><br />Top 100 solvers<br /><br />Mon 3:45, 3:42, 1.01, 60%, Medium<br />Tue 4:58, 4:24, 1.13, 83%, Challenging<br /><br />Today's puzzle is solidly in the challenging category for a Tuesday. Relative to the day of the week, it was the 6th most challenging puzzle for all solvers and the 17th most challenging for the top 100 (of 94 puzzles I've tracked).sanfranman59https://www.blogger.com/profile/15118732156312301425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-149013134841677642009-10-06T21:43:47.080-04:002009-10-06T21:43:47.080-04:00Years ago, I was confronted by a clue something li...Years ago, I was confronted by a clue something like "Comin'____ the Rye". I naturally assumed it was <i>thru</i> only to discover it was <i>thro</i>.<br /><br />This was in the pre-internet days and it took me a while to learn that <i>thro</i> was an accepted contraction for <i>through</i> but I only place I ever saw it was in the expression "Comin' thro the Rye.". It took a couple of times to see it before I learned not to be fooled by it.Bill from NJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10103923612595508277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-23424434881534062932009-10-06T21:43:14.014-04:002009-10-06T21:43:14.014-04:00@Sfingi, If your BIL is really dying I'm sorry...@Sfingi, If your BIL is really dying I'm sorry but it reminds me of Cher's fiance's mother in Moonstruck. Maybe he'll have a miraculous recovery as well.<br />Squeek the Anonymouse<br />P.S. Lots of comments for a Tuesday!<br />Too bad about the petty nit-picking.<br />If RHE appears on scoreboards (like I would know?) let it go!<br />I reread Rex's write-up and he didn't make a very big fuss about it.<br />It's only Tuesday. It was easily found through the crosses so let's find something REAL to argue about.<br />Oh no! I've been sucked into the negative vortex!!<br />@ Andrea, You are very energized today indeed. Is your Dinner Impossible on youTube?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-76613884633682206232009-10-06T21:03:20.094-04:002009-10-06T21:03:20.094-04:00@? The only name dropping I get to do is of my mar...@? The only name dropping I get to do is of my marginally famous ancestors. Love to hear from those of different paths, esp. world travelers.<br /><br />@Fergus - my maternal g'father, a Dutch/British/Scots fellow, founded a cemetery with a Jew and a Welshman. There are no stones, just brass plaques @ 1 ft x 1/2 ft. This was Masonic and all to save $. Also, easy to mow.<br /><br />Before I was sure about bleed, I considered crock (verb). In case they throw this one at us, it's what happens with incredibly cheap cloth in which the color actually rubs off dry. This happened once to me. Bleeding is most common with red.<br /><br />Ockham's razor - a simple idea that tells us to accept the simplest way to describe a phenomenon; for instance, the movement of the planets and stars are best explained if the sun is the center - otherwise the math becomes quite complicated. However, this doesn't always work, especially if you have to leave something out. Like gravity.<br /><br />Anyway, I appreciate the bubbliness today. One of my Sicilian brothers-in-law is dying because he thinks he's dying. It's a sort of evil-eye thing. Voodoo in Haiti, and Cuban Santaria are similar. I kid you not - it's any hour, now. Blessings to all, and to all a good night.Sfinginoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-89722123300483302682009-10-06T20:54:03.838-04:002009-10-06T20:54:03.838-04:00JC66, not sure what you're talking about, and ...JC66, not sure what you're talking about, and also no sure why you need to be an asshole saying it. IMO.a-patnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-47253906864407702982009-10-06T20:19:18.804-04:002009-10-06T20:19:18.804-04:00Didn't get the puzzle til 7:00pm. getting late...Didn't get the puzzle til 7:00pm. getting later and later. No time to read all the comments.<br /><br />Very challenging puzzle for a tuesday.<br /><br />Time to get ready for bed and see who gets knocked off dancing with the starschefbeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15195945085405126511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-91118318998604647112009-10-06T20:11:13.436-04:002009-10-06T20:11:13.436-04:00so i get on the train, figuring i will quickly do ...so i get on the train, figuring i will quickly do the puzzle and sleep the rest of the trip...but, by the time I was done, it was time to get off the train...but it was a great ride.PIXnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35115061.post-67820862282915637442009-10-06T20:05:37.845-04:002009-10-06T20:05:37.845-04:00Andrea et alia,
Every little comment carries some...Andrea et alia,<br /><br />Every little comment carries some baggage. I was raised with a number of biases that I still have to some degree, yet I realize I can't exhibit them or go pussyfooting around. A Scotsman is thrifty and so is a Jew. Stereotypes define us, and not necessarily in a bad way.fergushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17056002311944010536noreply@blogger.com